I really like the composition and the atmosphere.
I don't think you could crop the sun out without really harming the photo - you'd end up with rays of light at the edge of the photo pointing to something just off the edge and drawing the eye out of the photo. Ideally the sun would look more like the sun, but then this sort of exposure has always been a problem due to the dynamic range involved. HDR has a bad reputation due to hideous abuse in the past, but if done gently could have helped here. I try to bracket these sorts of exposures in case I later want to try that approach, not that I'm proficient at it yet.